- Sweating pipes

Dear Shell,

We are presently looking at a bi-level house where much of the plumbing seems to begin or end in a basement room. The owners said that because of sweating pipes the room is often very humid in the summer. They run a dehumidifier in there constantly. If this is indeed the situation, how can this be improved or solved? By the way, there is electric baseboard heat in the basement and radiant heat coming out from the ceiling on the main floor above. Any suggestions or advice you could give us would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Julius

Dear Julius,

To solve your sweating pipes my recommendation would be to wrap them with foam insulation or reflective foil pipe wrap. Rather than the dehumidifier consider installing a basement system Humidex ventilation system for information call 1-800-416-9111. The cost of operation and the inconvenience of a dehumidifier would not be my choice of correcting the problem.